ANTI-DRUG LAWS PASSED TO HARASS GROUPS

To the editor:

How many people are aware of the origin of our anti-drug laws? They had
nothing to do with drugs or narcotics as such. Marijuana was prohibited in
the 1930s as a weapon to harass illegal aliens and send them back to
Mexico. They used marijuana, and by making it illegal, it gave the
immigration authorities another weapon for harassment.

Congress in its infinite wisdom made other drugs illegal to harass the
hippies and the anti-Vietnam War protesters. None of these anti-drug laws
were passed to prohibit drugs for their content, but just to harass certain
groups.

Now we have a large bureaucracy to "fight drugs," making it almost
impossible to end it. Too many people would lose their jobs and have to go
work. Congress has thus provided the means of raising huge sums of money
for terrorists groups. Oh well, we know that pro and con are opposites, and
it is easy to tell the opposite of Progress.

Cortlandt van Winkle, Donna